urbes Petuaria et Portus Felix:*-which may be translated, “On the northern part of this region,† runs to the ocean, the river Abus, (Humber) one of the boundaries of the province Maxima; ‡ the Mersey being the other boundary. This province was also called the kingdom of Brigantia, because it comprehended the region of that name, and was inhabited by three nations. At the eastern point, where the promontories of Oxellum, and of the Brigantes, run into the sea, dwelt the Parisi, to whom belonged the towns of || Petuaria,and Portus Felix. The Greek of Ptolemy may be translated as follows: "Beside these about the well-havened bay, (Burlington Bay) are the Parisi, and the town Petuaria."Ş * Ricardi Monachi, de Situ Britanniæ, Lib. 1. Cap. 6. 31. Vide Stukeley's Itinerarium Curiosum. + Flavia Casariensis. So called from the family name of Vespasian. The country between the Humber and the Thames. Maxima, or Maxima Cæsariensis, or Britannia superior, contained the whole Counties of Durham, Lancaster and Westmoreland, and very nearly all Yorkshire, Cumberland and Northumberland, and it was inhabited by the Brigantes, Volantii, and Sustuntii. The promontories were Holderness and Flamborough-head, and the towns belonging to the Parisi were Petuaria at Beverley, and Portus Felix at Bridlington Quay. § Henry's Hist. Eng. Vol. 2. 8vo. p. 391. The conclusion to be drawn from these authorities is, that the ancient inhabitants of Holderness, the Ocellum Promontorium of the Romans, were denominated Parisi, and that they had two towns of superior strength and importance, one at Beverley and another at Burlington Bay. It is however certain that they were subject to the authority of the Brigantes, one of the principal tribes of the Britons.* As Mr. Henry in his valuable history of England, has taken much pains to investigate the history of the ancient Britons, the following remarks, from the Appendix to his second volume, deserve to be quoted, although somewhat at variance with other authorities. "The Parisi seem to have been a very small nation,inhabiting Holderness, and some other parts in the East-Riding of Yorkshire, about the wellhavened bay, probably Burlington Bay. Mr. Baxter thinks they were the Ceangi, or herdsmen of the Brigantes; and that their country was called Paür Isa, the Low-pasture, and themselves Parise, from Porüys, herdsmen. Their only town was Petuaria, about the situation of which our antiquaries are much divided in their opinions."+ The British town of Petuaria may, however, with far greater probability, be supposed at Henry's Hist. Eng. vol. 1. 8vo. p. 275, Beverley, than at Pocklington, MarketWeighton, Brough on the Humber, or any of the places which have been mentioned by our antiquaries, as it is more clearly united with the country inhabited by the Parisi. Camden has various surmises with regard to the situation of Petuaria, but he still seems to admit that it might be at Beverley.* to Mr. Drake, the historian of York, fixes on Beverley without hesitation as the Petuaria of the Parisi, the ancient British inhabitants, and herdsmen of Holderness; and although Camden might not know of any remains at Beverley which tended prove the fact, it should be remembered, that the towns of the ancient Britons were not built of very durable materials, and were in general surrounded only by a ditch with a rampart of earth which would easily be levelled in more civilised times. But Beverley is not without remains of great antiquity, well worth the examination and description of some gentleman there, who may have sufficient leisure and learning to give the history of them. "Beverley, Saron, Bever-laga, a large and populous town which Bede seems to call the Monastery in Deirwaud, or in the forest of the Deiri. By its name and situation one might suppose it Petuaria Parisiorum, though it shows no remains of greater antiquity than the retreat of John, surnamed of Beverley, Archbishop of York." Gough's Camden, Vol. 3. p. 247. Petuaria, Mr.Drake seems to be fully convinced, was the town now Beverley, as the only town in that part of the country mentioned by Ptolemy, and from which he is of opinion the Roman road must have gone directly towards Patrington or Spurn-Head, one of which places in Holderness he concludes was certainly the Roman Prætorium, mentioned as the last stage in the first Itinerary of Antoninus. Mr. Drake further says, speaking of Patrington or Spurn-Head, "This sea-port "must be very commodious to touch at, either going or returning from Gaul or the Belgic "coasts, and bringing military stores, &c. from "thence to York or Malton."* According to Dr. Stukeley, the 5th Iter of Richard, from the Vallum to Prætuarium, shews the Roman road from Falkirk to Patrington, and this 5th Iter of Richard, nearly agrees with that 1st Iter of Antoninus, in which Prætorium is explained by Mr. Gale to mean Patrington. There are many circumstances, however, which render it improbable that the Roman road ended at Patrington. There are no records which state that Patrington was a sea-port at the time of the Roman invasion, or subsequently during the Saxon heptarchy, or at the time of the Norman conquest; and it is much more probable that the Romans would land at Ravenspurne rather than * Philos. Transact. anno 1747. come farther up the Humber, which must always have been a dangerous navigation to strangers. No remains of fortifications have been discovered at Patrington, nor any Roman instruments or coins found there, and it is scarcely probable that a place which was the site of a Roman Camp, the residence of a Roman General and his army, the Prætorium, the place of Council and of Justice, should be totally destitute, even at this remote period, of all marks of a Roman station. It is true that it is not known that any Roman antiquities were at any time found at Ravenspurne; but the name of the place intimates its existence in Saxon times, when the Roman names were changed for Saxon names;* and there can now be no examination of the site of Ravenspurne, as the whole of the town, and the land for a considerable space around it, have long been lost in the Humber. In Domesday book the name of Patrington is written Patrictone, which may be supposed to mean Patrick's town rather than Prætorium; and certainly no proof that Patrington was a Roman station can be found in the name.† Ravenspurne * Mr. Hume observes, when speaking of the Saxons who subdued Britain, that "even the names of places, which often remain while the tongue entirely changes, were almost all affixed by the conquerors." Hist. Eng. vol. 1, p. 198. The Church at Patrington is dedicated to St. Patrick. (Bacon's Liber Regis.) Hence probably the name. |